Why different strategies
for different curriculum areas?

"Strategies are a primary
concerned with how subject matter is presented." (Dowell, 1975, p.
47). Learning teaching strategies for different curriculum areas is a
key component to a developing teachers education. Teaching strategies
play a key role in educating students, without strategies or a range
of strategies children are left to educate themselves. A good
definition of a strategy in a physical education sense can be taken
from Dowell (1975) where a teaching strategy is an "overall design or
procedure a teacher uses to transmit subject matter to students, it
may include one or more techniques and methods of teaching in the
process." (p.56) Better still a definition from Siedentop (1983) of
teaching as whole explains how vital strategies are to teaching. "The
basic task of teaching is to find ways to help students learn and
grow; to design educational experiences through which students will
grow in skill, understanding and attitude." (p. 5). Siedentop then
places learning a variety of strategies as stage two in Stages of
Skill Development in Teaching (p. 13), it only comes after the
initial discomfort stage.

Teaching strategies is a
very broad topic, to teach anything there has to be a strategy. This
page focuses specifically at the strategies used in different subject
areas and how they vary. The subject area that is looked at
specifically in this page is physical education. Physical education
is a unique subject because of its physical component, this
uniqueness has a profound effect on the teaching strategies
used.

Physical education like all
other curriculum areas has to teach children using a variety of
mediums, by this I mean a child has to be given the option of visual,
aural and hands on experience when learning anything. The other
common feature of strategies with other subjects is their role in
stimulating and motivating students to learn.

How children learn motor
skills, an essential part of physical education.

Before we can look at
strategies specific to physical education we need to consider the way
in which children learn physical education and motor skills. Motor
skills are the skills associated with actions the body performs, for
example writing is a motor skill. Physical education focuses on motor
skills that are based around sports, leisure and physical
development. Motor skills are an essential part of the physical
education curriculum because all practical is based on fine and gross
motor skills.

There are a number of motor
learning theories on the make-up of children and how they should be
educated in motor skills and therefore physical education.

The
Motor Program Theory

This theory believes
there is a stored program for each specific activity, it is the
role of the teacher to manipulate the program to bring
results.

The
Motor Shemas Theory

This theory believes
there are stored programs for skills but they are not specific and
the teacher has to build apon the initial foundation to improve
the skill.

The
Development Model Theory

This model or theory
believes motor learning and physical education are developmental
and sequential. It is the child that teaches themselves motor
skills it is the teachers role to refine and improve skills at a
faster rate.

The
Dynamic Systems Model

This model incorporates
the motor program and motor shemas theories. The theory believes
movement patterns are inborn and it is the role of the teacher to
massage the skills out of the child.

Teaching strategies associated with
physical education.

Some strategies that are
associated with physical education are: lecture, discussion,
lecture-demonstration, practice, inquiry, progressive-part,
part-whole and whole-part-whole (Dowell, 1975). Most of these
strategies can be used in any subject but I will be focussing on how
they can be used in a physical education sense.

The
Lecture Strategy

This strategy is mainly
used when teaching the theory of physical education. The lecture
strategy is useful when introducing a new unit of work, it can
introduce the rules and cover basic skill and techniques. When using
the lecture strategy teachers need to be well organized and be
enthusiastic in their delivery to keep students motivated. This
strategy is limited in its usefulness due to the inability to provide
feedback, a vital aspect of physical education, and the lack of
opportunity to assess students. The lecture strategy is usually
combined with other strategies.

The
Discussion Strategy

The discussion strategy
should be used as an immediate follow up to the lecture. Students are
given the chance to ask questions and put forward their ideas related
to the topic. To do this the strategy is most useful in small groups
so each student gets a chance to voice their opinions. Discussions
can be lead by the teacher with open ended questions. Another
responsibility of the teachers when using this strategy is to make
sure there is an environment where students feel comfortable to make
opinions and where they are not going to be put down. A discussion
can be very useful for students learning from each other, all
students will bring different abilities and techniques to the
physical education classroom, a discussion will help them evaluate
their skills and make alterations. The discussion is most useful at
the start of a unit where they need to be evaluating themselves in
their learning process.

The
Lecture-Demonstration Strategy

Another strategy that is
closely related to the lecture strategy is the lecture-demonstration
strategy. This strategy uses all the techniques of the lecture
strategy and incorporates a physical demonstration. The demonstration
can be taken by a teacher, student or a group of students. The
important issue with choosing students to take demonstrations is that
they are doing the activity correctly and providing a good example
for other students to base their learning on. Therefore teachers
should choose carefully when getting students to demonstrate a skill.
This strategy is one of the most popular for teaching physical
education. This is due to a number of factors: students are offered
two ways of understanding the skill being taught, visually and
aurally; students can make links with the theory by seeing what is
being taught; and it gives the students that are demonstrating a
unique experience.

The
Practice Strategy

A strategy that is commonly
used in physical education is the practice strategy. This strategy
utilizes the useful tool of feedback to improve development in
students learning. The practice strategy is where students get to
physically do the skill put to them in the lecture or theory.
Students can get feedback in this strategy from other students or the
teacher observing them in practice. Practice is where students can
refine their techniques and move to another plateau of the
performance curve.

The
Inquiry Strategy

The next strategy looked at
is the inquiry strategy. This strategy gives students the chance to
become involved in the teaching of the learning process. It tries to
promote reflective thinking and self refinement. It is very similar
to the inquiry strategy in literacy, where reflection enables
students to critically evaluate what they are doing.

The
Progressive-Part Strategy

The progressive-part
strategy is a strategy that is used with mainly younger students.
This strategy teachers students through a sequence, from the very
basics to a complex level. The progression is quite slow due to the
slight refinements and the need for complete understanding before
moving onto the next stage.

The
Part-Whole Strategy

This strategy is similar to
the progressive-part except there isn't as major emphasis on each
stage and two or more stages can be combined to one stage. In this
strategy students learn the individual parts of a skill or game
before attempting to do the whole skill or play a complete game. The
part-whole strategy is used when the skill is complex and there are
many aspect that must be mastered in order to perform the skill at a
competent level. The main consideration with this strategy is the
level of the students ability to take in what is being taught.
Generally if there are more than three key components in a skill the
part-whole strategy will be used.

The
Whole-Part-Whole Strategy

The whole-part-whole
strategy is a strategy that is greatly used by teachers of physical
education. As the name of the strategy implies, students do a skill
as a whole, they then learn the basics in parts and then do skill as
a whole again. This strategy is very effective because after the
initial experience of doing the skill as a whole. A useful aspect of
this strategy is the teacher gets a good idea of the skill level of
the students when they do the skill as a whole initially, from this
observation the teacher can base their level of instruction for the
part aspect of the strategy. The other associated benefit is students
can develop more rapidly if their skill levels are advanced, the
teacher will avoid going through the basics as they would in the
part-whole method.

Putting strategies into
practice.

Examples of lesson plans
using the part-whole and whole-part-whole will demonstrate the
difference between the two strategies and give ideas of how these
strategies can be used in the classroom.

A lesson teaching the motor
skill of throwing provides a good example of the strategies being put
into practice.

The Part-Whole
Strategy

Part 1 - the grip:
teach students how to grip the ball.

Part 2 - the arm
movement: the arm is brought behind the back so the hand is behind
the head, the arm then moves forwards and is extended out in front
of the body.

Part 3 - the release:
the ball is released as the arm and wrist are fully
extended.

Part 4 - weight
transference: the weight is shifted from the back leg to the front
leg, simultaneously with the arm.

Part 5 - leg movement:
as the weight is transferred to the back leg, the front leg comes
off the ground and steps forward with the weight
transference.

Part 6 - doing the
skill as a whole.

The Whole-Part-Whole
Strategy

Organize an activity
where students can throw at a target. This is the only instruction
that should be given (apart from safety issues). The teacher
observes the students and from this decides what part of the skill
they will begin their instruction.

The teacher then
follows the part-whole strategy. Depending on the classes previous
experience of throwing and their ability the teacher will instruct
from a part that matches their ability with one of the parts
described in the part-whole strategy above.

Once the students have
attempted the skill and been through the skill in parts they do
the skill as a whole again, this time with the benefit of feedback
and refinement in the part strategy.